


Promise Me

by faerialchemist



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: (give or take the time lmao), First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Holding Hands, Hurt/Comfort, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Kissing at Midnight, M/M, Pre-Canon, What Could Have Been, aang has so many crises in this fic but he's fine dw about it, childhood crushes, kuzon cares about aang a lot y'all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 13:47:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29760546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faerialchemist/pseuds/faerialchemist
Summary: During their most recent interactions, Aang couldn’t deny that something had… maybe changed between them. To Aang, they’d grown closer than ever, holding hands and tackling each other into hugs on sight and finishing each other’s sentences. Sometimes a joke, sometimes planned, and sometimes not.Aang couldn’t go without visiting Kuzon one last time. Not when he hadn’t - he hadn’t -(A pre-canon Kuzaang fic. Fate is a cruel mistress.)
Relationships: Aang & Gyatso (Avatar), Aang & Kuzon (Avatar), Aang/Kuzon (Avatar)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 31





	Promise Me

**Author's Note:**

> two things to keep in mind as you read: 1) appa flies at the speed of plot and 2) i do not study geography and have only studied geology a little bit. please be kind lmao. i hope you enjoy my contribution to this underrated “childhood crushes to angst” pairing!

“Tomorrow, Gyatso, I’m finally going to beat you at Pai Sho,” Aang said, brimming with confidence as he and his mentor climbed the stone stairs toward the temple’s sleeping chambers. He’d come within a few moves of victory against Monk Gyatso that day - surely he’d pull off a victory sooner rather than later.

Gyatso chuckled. “Perhaps.” He gave Aang a sly grin. “But it would be highly unfortunate if your most valued tiles refused to obey your commands during our next game, would it not?”

Aang mock-scowled at the monk, aware his irritated expression did not match the excited twinkle in his eyes. He was all too familiar with Gyatso’s favorite tactic of airbending his opponent’s robes over their eyes and not-so-discreetly shifting around any tiles on the verge of winning a game.

Or maybe he only used that technique against Aang.

“That would be very unfortunate,” Aang agreed, though he couldn’t stop an amused grin from tugging at his lips. “But I’m sure nothing like that will happen -”

“Master Aang.”

Aang jumped at the interruption, turning on his heel to see - “Monk Tashi?!” He bowed towards the elder airbender, unsure why the man had approached him. Particularly so late in the day - the sun had almost finished setting. “Is there something you need from me?”

“Not at this moment,” Tashi replied as Aang straightened out of his bow. “I simply wished to inform you, young master, that tomorrow you will be called before the Council of Elders.”

Aang’s shoulders stiffened. “I will? Why?” Out the corner of his eye, he noticed Gyatso stand taller, his mentor’s brow furrowing in thinly-disguised fury.

“You needn’t concern yourself with this meeting now, Aang,” Gyatso said before Tashi could respond, placing a hand on Aang’s left shoulder. His grip was firm, though not enough to cause pain. “Monk Tashi is speaking out of turn.”

Tashi frowned, lifting his chin. “Calm yourself, Gyatso. I only wished to provide Aang with an advance warning, hence come tomorrow he will be prepared -”

“All you have provided him with is a restless night of agonizing over why he, a child, is expected to appear before the Council,” Gyatso snapped, his tone harsh enough to make Aang flinch. Aang rarely heard such outrage from his mentor - that meant something had to be deeply wrong for Gyatso to react in this way. “There was no reason for you to broach this subject before tomorrow.”

A frown tugged at the corners of Tashi’s lips. “Gyatso. You know as well as I do the uncertain times our world faces. Aang must be prepared to accept -”

“Enough!” Gyatso’s grip on Aang tightened, his nails digging into Aang’s shoulder with enough force to make him wince. “We will not speak of this any further. Good night, Monk Tashi.” Without another word to the elder - Aang didn’t even have time to bow - Gyatso had spun Aang around and was nudging him up the stairs to their original destination.

Aang swallowed a rising lump in his throat, anxiety burning in his chest. That conversation had not boded well for him. “Gyatso, what was Monk Tashi -”

“Do not concern yourself with what Monk Tashi spoke of,” Gyatso interrupted. His voice was gentler now, his hand a comforting presence on Aang’s shoulder once more rather than an ironclad grip. “He was out of line, more concerned with the notion of responsibility than the individuals who are forced to bear it.”

His response may have answered Aang’s question in technicality, but it also left Aang with a thousand more queries. Gyatso hadn’t looked at him as he’d spoken, either, which only served to tie a double knot in Aang’s stomach. He didn’t know if more information would free him or entangle it further. “But why does the Council want to see _me_?”

Had he done something wrong? His latest trick with the air scooter had ended with mild wreckage, yes, but no one had gotten hurt. Surely those minor damages hadn’t been so serious that the entire Council of Elders would be required to intervene -

Gyatso sighed, snapping Aang out of his downward spiral. Or at least halting it. “You have done nothing,” Gyatso replied after a pause. The mournful note of his mentor’s tone was enough to make Aang nauseous. “Perhaps they fear that in itself is the problem.”

Aang’s stomach flip-flopped.

Gyatso shook his head as they slowed to a stop outside of Aang’s bedroom. “But you should not think any further into my words or Monk Tashi’s for the rest of the night, understand? All will be resolved tomorrow.”

Aang hesitated, fists bunching the orange fabric at his sides. He couldn’t make any promises - now that the seed of apprehension had been planted, an anxious flower would bloom, fed by the nutrients of paranoia and terror. But still he nodded. “Good night, Gyatso.”

Gyatso smiled at him, and Aang didn’t miss how the corners of his mentors’ eyes crinkled with quiet, unspoken sorrow. “Good night, Aang. See you tomorrow.”

He’d see him with the rest of the Council, Aang supposed. He gave Gyatso one final wave before slipping into his bedroom, the wooden door creaking as he closed it behind him.

_All you have provided him with is a restless night._

Gyatso had been on the nose with that.

Tossing and turning was an understatement, as Aang found himself shifting with every corner his racing thoughts took. The most frustrating part was how _aimless_ his panic was. Gyatso hadn’t let Monk Tashi finish speaking and Gyatso himself had provided no further explanation that could ease Aang’s nerves. That meant his paranoia had no concrete foundation to start from - instead, it chased after every potential worse-case scenario. One phrase in particular from Monk Tashi was glued to the forefront of Aang’s mind.

_The uncertain times our world faces._

But what was happening in their world that Aang didn’t know about?

Bumi hadn’t mentioned anything the last time he’d visited Omashu, nor had Lun sent word from Ba Sing Se. Yura hadn’t had any big news the last time Aang had seen them, either, but they also weren’t the kind of person who bothered to keep up with the times. Mali… well, it was true Mali had seemed anxious the last time Aang had visited Caldera City, but she’d refused to elaborate on why, even when Aang’s trip had been unexpectedly cut short. And Kuzon -

Aang rolled onto his back, staring up at the stone ceiling.

He was supposed to visit Kuzon at the end of the week.

A menacing voice whispered in Aang’s ear that those plans would be cancelled. Cancelled to never be rescheduled. But Aang _needed_ to see Kuzon again. It had been months since his last visit to the Fire Nation and even longer since Kuzon’s last visit to the Southern Air Temple. During their most recent interactions, Aang couldn’t deny that something had… maybe changed between them. To Aang, they’d grown closer than ever, holding hands and tackling each other into hugs on sight and finishing each other’s sentences. Sometimes a joke, sometimes planned, and sometimes not.

Aang couldn’t go without visiting Kuzon one last time. Not when he hadn’t - he hadn’t -

Aang sat bolt upright in bed, peering out the window that sat above him to his right. The moon was yet to begin sinking below the horizon. If he left on Appa now, he could arrive at Kuzon’s house, stay for an hour, and still be back to the temple before daybreak. Or at least not too long after daybreak.

Poor Appa, having to fly this sudden trip. Aang would owe him an infinite supply of apples.

Sneaking out of the temple wasn’t difficult for Aang - he had done so many times to visit Kuzon during previous summers. But those meet-ups had always been pre-planned. Aang made sure Appa got plenty of extra rest prior to their leaving, Kuzon knew Aang was coming and therefore knew to be awake to receive him.

But tonight was different. An instinct.

Aang would make it up to both of them later.

Appa flew without complaint and without much need of steering, for which Aang was grateful. They were miles into the clear sky, but Aang’s head had long since vanished into the clouds. The longer he pondered over his journey, the more nonsensical the entire trip seemed. Unexpectedly visiting his best friend in the middle of the night because - because he had a bad feeling about the next day? Because a single conversation had him on edge? Spirits, talk about a thin excuse.

Still. Despite his guilt about bothering Kuzon out of the blue… Aang was unable to guilt himself into turning around. If he couldn’t confide in Kuzon, who else could he trust?

After about two hours - and at least two existential crises on Aang’s part - Appa touched down on what Aang knew was his bison’s favorite part of the rocky peninsula Kuzon’s house was on: a grassy, flat meadow nestled at the base of a so-called mountain that “blocked” the way into the small Fire Nation village. A natural barrier, Kuzon liked to joke, except for the fact that it was man-made. Supposedly by earthbenders, centuries ago.

Aang hadn’t seen many Earth Kingdom citizens during his last trip to the Fire Nation.

“Wait here, buddy,” Aang whispered as he jumped off Appa’s back and airbended himself to the ground. “I’ll be back soon.” He patted the sky bison’s nose. “And get some rest while I’m gone, okay?” Appa would need it for their flight back.

After his bison gave him an affirmative grunt, Aang began making his way to Kuzon’s home. His friend’s house was on the outskirts of the tiny village, and Aang had no trouble getting around the “mountain” that led many people astray. Kuzon had shown him the route, after all. Aang would never forget it.

But Aang knew more than just the quickest way to Kuzon’s home - he had a special way of signaling to his friend when he’d arrived, too. Of course, Kuzon was normally awake when Aang notified him of his presence.

Aang sighed. He just hoped his friend would hear the song through his sleep.

Outside of Kuzon’s window, Aang knew, hung a slender set of golden wind chimes. The nearby coast meant a sea breeze usually kept them singing, but tonight Aang would be the one to play a tune. It had taken weeks of practice - and endless teasing from Kuzon - but Aang had learned to manipulate his airbending with enough precision through the metal chimes to create a brief, eight-note jingle. The melody was as airy as a sparrowkeet’s chirp, a decision they’d made because Aang’s visits were more often than not a delight for the both of them.

Once Aang was close enough to distinguish the wind chimes beneath the shadows of Kuzon’s home, he took a deep breath before beginning to bend. From where he stood, no one could see him unless they were peering directly out of Kuzon’s window, and even then they would have to know where to look.

Aang played the tune once.

Twice.

Three ti-

The window creaked as the wooden covering was pushed open, and heat rose in Aang’s cheeks as he met the bleary, sleep-ridden gaze of none other than Kuzon. It took a moment, but his friend’s eyes soon widened - probably once he realized that Aang was actually _there_ and not a figment of his imagination.

Aang gave him a half-hearted, embarrassed wave, to which Kuzon responded with an incredulous stare.

Yeah, Aang couldn’t blame his friend for that one.

Kuzon shook his head before pulling his window shut, and less than two minutes later he was darting out the back of his house while pulling his hair up into its usual - if now messier - bun. Aang resisted the urge to push the loose strands out his friend’s face. He’d done so a thousand times in the past, and yet in that moment… He couldn’t.

“I have about a million questions for you,” Kuzon said as he stopped a foot in front of Aang and finished tying the scarlet ribbon that would hold his hair in place, “but I guess I should wait until we’re at our spot, huh?”

Aang laughed, though he kept his voice low. The odds of anyone overhearing them were slim, especially at such a late hour - or was it an early hour by that point? - but they had learned the hard way that it _was_ still possible. Their escape from Kuzon’s neighbors had been legendary. “Then let’s get a move on.”

Their “spot,” as it were, was a ledge with just enough room for two people that extended from somewhere around the middle of the mini-mountain. The angle the ledge jutted out at meant it was only visible to those looking towards the island, not people already there. And although the ledge wasn’t particularly close to the mountain’s peak, it was still high enough where anyone sitting on it had a clear view of the rolling ocean below.

“Okay,” Kuzon said as he took his usual seat to Aang’s left. Tonight, Aang was excruciatingly aware of how their shoulders were pressed together. But it was probably just his latent anxiety making him hyper-alert. No other reason. “What brings you across the seas to randomly visit me in the middle of the night?” Kuzon smirked at Aang, waggling his eyebrows. “Wait. Don’t tell me. You just couldn’t wait a few more days for our planned visit, huh? You missed me too much.”

Tension began to ease from Aang’s shoulders. Kuzon always had a relaxing effect on him. “It’s true, I couldn’t bear your absence any longer,” Aang said with a dramatic sigh, lolling his head to his right. “Waiting another three days might have killed me.”

Kuzon snickered. “Well, I’d never forgive myself if you died because I wasn’t there to save you.” He hummed as he shifted his gaze towards the ocean. “But anyways. As happy as I am that you’re here right now…” He glanced at Aang, brow furrowing in worry. “I know you wouldn’t show up unplanned without good reason. So what’s going on? Did something bad happen?”

Aang bit his bottom lip, keeping his eyes trained on the frothy sea before them. The water was far away yet close enough where he could taste salt in the air, and the light of the full moon made the cresting waves glow silver. It also highlighted the slender scar above Kuzon’s left eyebrow.

Which Aang hadn’t noticed. Because he wasn’t looking at his friend.

Ugh. Spirits. Now that Aang was _here_ , with Kuzon directly beside him, his hours-long journey seemed… ridiculous. As in even more so than before. He’d flown all the way to the Fire Nation and deprived his best friend of a night’s rest - for what? Because anxiety gnawed at his stomach and made it roll like the waves before him? Because Monk Tashi’s words clung to him with such a grip that Aang was choking on air, betrayed by his own element? Because Kuzon was the _only_ person Aang could ever -

“Aang?”

Aang inhaled sharply. He clenched his hands into fists, his nails scraping across the stone beneath his palms. How long had he been holding his breath?

“Aang, are you okay?”

Aang didn’t dare meet his friend’s eyes. “Yeah,” he said after a pause. “Sorry. I just… got lost in thought.”

He could see Kuzon giving him a cheesy grin out the corner of his vision. “Aw, were you thinking about me?”

Aang managed a laugh. He’d never been able to fully suppress his laughter around Kuzon. “Oh, always. Nonstop. Can’t get you off my mind.”

Kuzon laughed, too. “You’re such a charmer.” He leaned so his shoulder was pressed more firmly into Aang’s. “But I know you didn’t come all this way just to stroke my ego.” He tilted his head, expression serious. “You can trust me. What’s going on?”

Aang licked his lips. Sure, maybe his trip had been unnecessary. Maybe he’d have been better off staying at the temple and letting the Pai Sho tiles fall where they may. But he was here now, wasn’t he? He was with Kuzon. Aang couldn’t waste this chance. He couldn’t waste however much was left of their precious time together.

“Tomorrow, I’m being summoned before the Council of Elders,” he blurted, “and I have no clue why.”

Kuzon blinked, taken aback. Not that Aang could blame him for being stunned - it was the same as his own reaction when he’d received the news from Monk Tashi.

Aang could also no longer pretend that he wasn’t staring at his friend like Kuzon was the only thing his eyes knew how to see.

“Okay,” Kuzon said after a pause, biting his bottom lip. “Last time the Council called you before them, it was because you were getting your master tattoos. That was a good thing.”

The fact that Kuzon remembered made Aang’s heart skip a beat. But he shook his head. “I don’t think it’s a good thing this time.” Aang shifted, placing his hands in his lap as his shoulders hunched forward. The world already felt so big - he might as well accept his own smallness, too. “When Monk Tashi brought it up, Gyatso got - he actually got _angry_ with him.”

Kuzon whistled. “Wow. Gyatso never gets mad.” He paused, eyes widening. “Or… not without a really good reason.”

Aang nodded, probably with more emphasis than was needed. “Exactly!” If Kuzon’s line of thought was the same as his own, then maybe Aang hadn’t been overthinking the issue after all. Or not as much as he’d originally feared. “And - And Gyatso got angriest after Monk Tashi mentioned something about the world facing uncertain times. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him snap at anyone like that.”

Aang allowed a beat to pass, exhaling slowly and unclenching his fists. He was holding too much tension in his body. “Gyatso ended the conversation there. I asked him afterwards what Monk Tashi had been talking about, but he -”

“- didn’t give you a straight answer?” Kuzon guessed, and Aang nodded.

“Yeah. Something tells me…” He huffed, his hands curling into themselves once more. His fingernails dug at his palms, biting them, but Aang barely noticed the sting. “I’ve got a really bad feeling about tomorrow. Something serious is clearly going on and I guess I’m somehow connected to part of it but no one will tell me anything and now I’m just -”

Aang bit his tongue to cut himself off before he could spiral any further.

_Terrified._

“Overreacting,” he finished after a pause, face hot with a blush born of humiliation. What had he been thinking, letting himself freak out in front of Kuzon like that? It was both embarrassing and unnecessary.

“Sorry.” Aang kept his gaze glued to his hands resting in his lap, orange fabric newly bunched between them. “It’s - It’s really not a big deal, I shouldn’t have woken you up in the middle of the night and bothered you with it just because I couldn’t -”

“Aang.”

Aang stiffened when Kuzon placed a hand on top of his, his friend gently uncurling Aang’s grip on his robes to lace their fingers together. Yes, they’d held hands before, but there was a tenderness to Kuzon’s action here that Aang wasn’t sure he’d ever experienced from him.

He liked it, though. Maybe too much.

“I don’t care that you woke me up,” Kuzon reassured him with a soft smile. “It was clearly a big enough deal where you felt like you needed to talk to someone.”

Not just someone, Aang knew. _You._

Kuzon gave his hand a gentle squeeze. “And you’re not overreacting, okay? I would have done the same thing.”

Aang’s racing heart was at last beginning to slow. He managed to offer Kuzon an amused smile. “You would fly across the ocean in the middle of the night to wake up your best friend just to dump your unfounded fears onto him?”

“I mean, duh.”

Aang laughed. Kuzon’s hand was warm in his own - definitely the firebender in him. “I’d let you.”

“I know you would.” Kuzon turned so he was looking directly at Aang, and Aang couldn’t stop himself from shifting to meet his friend’s eyes, too. Kuzon’s expression was imploring. Earnest.

He’d always been able to see right through Aang.

“So why would you think I wouldn’t let you?”

Aang hated when Kuzon made a good point. Even worse, it happened all the time.

He sighed, relenting. “Okay. You’re right.” He squeezed Kuzon’s hand. “Thanks for letting me be with you, then.” Aang’s chest was already lighter, having confessed his anxieties to his friend. Tension still lingered in his shoulders, but all the same - there were worse places he could be. Different people he could be with.

There was no one Aang wanted to be with more than Kuzon.

“Always.” Kuzon turned so their shoulders were pressed together once more, but he didn’t release Aang’s hand. “But… I think you might be onto something,” he continued after a pause. “That a storm is brewing, I mean.”

Nausea burned at the back of Aang’s throat, and he swallowed hard. He’d been hoping - praying - his fears were wrong. Baseless. Unfounded. “Why?”

Kuzon’s gaze remained transfixed on the ghostly ocean before them. The breeze had picked up, sending waves crashing with greater intensity onto the shore. “I overheard my parents talking a few days ago,” he admitted.

Aang watched his friend’s loose hair be blown every which way by the wind, and this time, he couldn’t stop himself from tucking it behind Kuzon’s ear. He’d always played with Kuzon’s hair when they were younger. Braiding it, twisting it, tying it up. Such intimacy was familiar between them. And yet…

Things were different now.

Kuzon gave Aang a tiny smile at the touch. “Thanks.”

Aang nodded. “Did… Did your parents say something bad?” he asked after a pause. His tongue was too heavy in his mouth, a muscle made of iron, as if the question had been begging never to be spoken. As if its release into the breeze was the world’s curse to bear.

Kuzon pursed his lips. “It wasn’t great, no,” he said with a sigh. “Apparently Fire Lord Sozin has started calling together the army. My parents are worried he might… that he might be planning to go to war.”

Aang’s heart pushed against his chest, screaming and crying to be set free as his blood ran cold. “War?” _The uncertain times our world faces._ “Against who? Why?” There’d been peace for so long, longer than Aang could even remember - what had changed?

Kuzon shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know.” He chewed his bottom lip. “I… I also heard my parents mention that Fire Lord Sozin is about to enact a travel ban.” He glanced at Aang, and Aang’s stomach sank as bile inched higher in his throat. “To and from the Air Temples.”

Aang couldn’t breathe. His chest was rising and falling and still no oxygen made it into his lungs - blasphemy from an airbending master, wasn’t it?

“And you know how you were supposed to visit at the end of the week?” Kuzon’s voice had grown quiet, his eyes clenched shut. His grip on Aang’s hand had tightened, too. Aang was sure his own had done the same.

“My parents, they… said they would have to turn you away at the door. Because of the ruling.”

There was an unusual note to Kuzon’s voice, perhaps higher than usual, an almost distraught whisper that made Aang blink back tears welling in the corners of his eyes. When that failed, he wiped them with his right sleeve.

“I didn’t know what I could do. How I could stay in contact with you if the Fire Lord himself was trying to ban it.” Kuzon inhaled a shuddering breath. “I’m… I’m really glad you came tonight, Aang.”

How had Aang’s world been upended in a matter of hours? The Council summoning him, the possibility of war, _being separated from Kuzon_ -

Yesterday, Aang could never have imagined such far fetched changes. Not even in his worst nightmares.

And now?

“What if we don’t see each other again?” Aang blurted, heart-racing. “After tonight? What if this is the last time we’re together?” His words were a sharp turn, maybe, for their conversation to take, but Aang had long since lost control of the reins. Because what if war _did_ break out? What if disaster struck sooner rather than later? Spirits forbid they were on opposing sides -

“That won’t happen.” Kuzon’s voice was determined, his eyes open once more. Now, he stared at Aang, gaze so intense that Aang was certain his feelings were completely transparent before his friend. “We aren’t going to be -”

“Kuzon!”

They both jumped at the demanding call of Kuzon’s mother, loud enough to where they knew she must have stepped outside to look for her son.

“Kuzon, I have told you a thousand times to stop wandering around at night! One day you’re going to misstep in the dark and fall off a cliff!”

Kuzon rolled his eyes, muttering, “It is not that dark.”

Aang bit his tongue to hold back a laugh. There was a fine line between terror and hilarity - a line Aang was not treading particularly well at the moment, stumbling back and forth across it.

Kuzon’s mother sighed. “You know I’m not going to drag you back to your room, Kuzon. But if I don’t see you in your bed in five minutes, expect appropriate consequences. Time’s ticking.”

Strict as she sounded, Aang knew Kuzon’s mother didn’t mean it. She’d always been a softie. All roar and no bite. She would never -

Or… maybe she would. Kuzon’s parents had planned to turn him away, hadn’t they? Like Gyatso had said about Monk Tashi, maybe they were more concerned about -

“I guess that’s my cue to leave,” Kuzon said, breaking the silence newly hanging between them. He slowly got to his feet, but when he tried to release Aang’s hand, Aang couldn’t let go. Instead, he stood, too, fingers still intertwined as he faced his friend eye to eye. They’d been the same height for the longest time, but now Aang was a few inches taller. Because time had passed, and things had changed.

Aang didn’t want things to change. Not with Kuzon.

No. That was a lie.

Maybe Aang did want change between him and Kuzon. But he was afraid, wasn’t he? Afraid of things changing in the _wrong_ way. Afraid of distance. Losing touch. Being torn apart instead of pushed together. What could be worse than having Kuzon ripped from his life?

Just in case. Just in case this was their final moment together, Aang couldn’t let things go unsaid. The unknown, uncertainty, missed opportunities - those always ached more than any wound from a cruel truth.

“Kuzon,” Aang began, hands and voice shaking as he stared at the stone beneath his feet, “if this is the - if this is the last time we see each other, I want you to know -”

He was cut off by Kuzon grabbing the front of his shawl and pulling him into a hasty, fierce kiss. There was a tang of sea salt to it, and Kuzon had really only managed to capture his bottom lip, but Aang didn’t care. He kissed his friend back with everything in him, fireworks exploding in his stomach as his grip on Kuzon’s hand tightened. The electric moment was everything Aang wanted and more.

Of course, Aang’s elation didn’t stop his face from heating up like a Fire Nation summer day.

“This won’t be the last time we see each other,” Kuzon whispered as he pulled away. Aang took comfort in the fact that his friend’s face was as red as his own.

Friend. Were they something more, after this?

Kuzon then gave Aang’s hand a firm squeeze, their fingers still laced together, as if letting go now would mean saying goodbye forever. “I promise.”

Aang hesitated, then took a deep breath, allowing himself to release Kuzon’s hand before pulling his friend into a crushing hug. Kuzon didn’t hesitate to return the embrace, wrapping his arms around Aang’s waist in response. Aang could feel Kuzon’s heartbeat through his own chest, reminding him that he was there. They were _together_.

Nothing could change that.

Kuzon was the one to pull away. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I have to go.”

Aang nodded. “I know.”

He watched Kuzon run home, ensuring his friend made it safely inside before he returned to Appa and began their flight back to the temple. Against all logic and reason and rationale, hope spread its opalescent wings in Aang’s chest.

Kuzon liked him.

What that meant for their future, Aang didn’t know. Though he was certain it would involve relentless teasing from Bumi and Yura. Mali would probably say she’d called it. Lun? Well, Lun might have been oblivious to it. Nonetheless, all of their friends were sure to be happy for them.

Spirits, Aang couldn’t wait to tell Gyatso.

He sighed, awestruck, staring up at the blinking stars as they faded into the pinks and oranges of the just-appearing sun. Maybe the dawn of a new day wouldn’t be so bad after all. If Kuzon was by his side, Aang could take on anything.

But as it happened, as destiny played her blood-stained cards, Aang never had the chance to tell Gyatso. He never had the chance to tell his friends, either. In fact, Aang never had a chance to tell _anyone_ about what had transpired between him and Kuzon. He learned quickly, too quickly that the world had other plans for his future. He learned that happiness was not included in a single one.

“We have known you were the Avatar for some time.”

But Aang learned something else, too.

_This won’t be the last time we see each other._

Aang learned heartbreak.

_I promise._

Because some promises were meant to be broken.


End file.
